Trip to the Big Apple

Gwen, Naomi and I flew to PA to visit my parents a few weeks ago. One of the things I wanted to do while we were there was visit "the city". To people who have lived there, there is only one place that qualifies for that name. Every other place pales in comparison. There are wonderful places all around the world and I've been to a few of them, but no place is as much of a city as New York. We drove to Staten Island and parked at the ferry terminal. Here is a picture of Gwen sitting on the orange benches on the outside deck of one of the new boats...

...and here she is on one of the older boats a few years ago.

What a cutie :)

Riding on the ferry and then getting on the subway brings back such a rush of memories for me. So many hours of my life were spent on public transportation - reading, talking, drowsing, pushing, daydreaming, flirting.

The first place we went was the Toys R Us magnet store in Times Square. They have a full size (three stories high) ferris wheel inside. Gwen is in the green car on the top right.

Each car had a theme.

After the toy store, we went to M&M world, which was a disappointment. It was just tourist stuff and m&m's for $9 a pound. At least the Jelly Belly Factory had free samples...

One fun thing that happened on our way out was running into a police dog (not literally). The officer kindly let Gwen hold his leash (the dog's).

The ferry has one of the best views of the Statue of Liberty. We also saw one made out of legos in the toy store and even a giant green m&m Statue of Liberty.

Last of all we went to the Metropolitan museum of Art. Here is Gwen entering the Temple of Dendur.

It was a wonderful day. We ate bagels, hot dogs off the street (better than it sounds) and pizza. We even tracked down a piece of cheesecake to take home to Stan. Thanks Mom for the fix. I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the calendars!!!

Thanksgiving Trip

Here I am, finally blogging about our once-in-a-lifetime Thanksgiving trip. Who knows when I'll catch up on all that has happened since then.

:)

All nine of us left in the wee hours of the morning for the airport the Monday before Thanksgiving. We took two cars and had nine bags plus three car seats to check. The skycap guy EARNED his tip. Each of us had carry-on bags with books, toys, art supplies, games, work to do, and snacks, snacks, snacks. It was pretty exciting to go on the airplane. So exciting, that Michael was satisfied with the fun he'd had and asked at the end of the first leg of our trip out, as we were deplaning, "Are we back?"


I took this picture of Michael in one of the three airports we were in because I liked how his shirt matched the grey and yellow of the escalator. Notice his half on/half off suspenders. Michael's suspenders made their mark forever in the history of our family when they set off the metal detector at the security checkpoint.

We flew into Dulles, picked up the 12 passenger van we were renting, and drove to the Washington D.C. Temple. We met Aunt Sara at the Visitor's Center, took a couple of pictures, decided it was too cold for our thin-blooded selves and headed to our hotel.

I had written our congressman months before to get tickets to the White House, so Stan, the kids and I took off. I had grand plans about driving all the way around D.C., taking the Metro in and having a head start on our trip south, but rush hour traffic was not part of them. I don't know why I was so sure we could make it. I should have remembered from when we lived there, but we never would have attempted this trip if I wasn't an optimist, so we were lucky that Sara was back at the hotel, using the WiFi to do homework on her laptop. She found a Metro station online, got us to it and saved the day. We parked the van, bought some tickets, hopped on the train and made it just in time for our tour.

Our extended family reunion theme was "Concentrated Insanity", but our specific family sub-theme may have been "Security Checkpoint Mishaps." Summer set off the metal detector at the White House with her braces (as confirmed by the Secret Service guy using the wand on her after she made the walk-through alarm sound).

The White House was neat. I think my favorite parts of being there were the feeling of walking where so many admirable people have walked and also the paintings.

After the White House, we walked to the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum and met Sara there. Stan took a picture of the rest of us in front of the elephant in the rotunda.

One of the funnest parts of our day in D.C. was riding the Metro. I regaled the kids with stories of the times I rode the Subway in N.Y. in high school. They all learned why there are lots of things to hold onto while you stand.

We got back in the van, drove down the George Washington Memorial Parkway and stopped to see the house we rented while we lived in Alexandria. This is the house Heather came home from the hospital to, so we took her picture in front of it.

We headed to North Carolina Tuesday afternoon and stayed the night in Fayetteville so that we could spend the next morning with my sister Abby and her family. She made German pancakes and French toast for us for breakfast - very international and very yummy.

We drove from North to South Carolina Wednesday and got lost. We waited in a Baptist church's parking lot, overlooking the graveyard for my brother Tim to come rescue us and that is where we first met up with all the grandparents -- my mom, my dad and my Grandma Blanche -- who flew out for the reunion.

We finally made it to the condos on Lake Moultrie we were staying in, ate something, got the kids off to bed and made plans to play jokes on the aged father for his 65th birthday. Sara, Summer, Rachel and I got up at two and, trying to keep the giggling down, made a pyramid of plastic cups in front of his bedroom door and wrote a message with toothpaste and mini-mini marshmallows. His nickname is Mean Old Ugly Ogre, in case you are wondering.

Here are Summer, Rachel, and Heather playing football with their cousins and some kids that were staying next door Thanksgiving Day. They had a blast.

Everyone loves the Mean Old Ugly Ogre. He almost constantly had some admiring grandchild or another in his footsteps. Here he is on the Lake Moultrie beach with Adele.

We really enjoyed spending time on the beach. We never made it to the Atlantic, but the beach on the lake was nice, too. There were lots of shells...

...and Naomi discovered that sand tastes good salty or not.

Gwen enjoyed the sand too, even though she didn't eat any.

Summer, Rachel and various aunts cut cardboard mustaches out for us all to wear for the family pictures. Here is Kelly looking adorable with fake facial hair.

We ate all kinds of interesting things. Tim deep fried a couple of turkeys for Thanksgiving dinner -- they were delicious. We also ate fried okra, Moon Pie, Grandpa's donuts, Krispy Kreme donuts, shakes from Cookout's, and oysters on the half shell. One thing I love about Stan is his willingness to try new things. Here he is getting ready to swallow his first oyster, it's heart probably still beating.

After having a Thanksgiving, Grandpa's birthday and an all around blast with the family, we headed back north in the van on Saturday. It was fun to take a road trip together in one vehicle, which we haven't done since Mo was born.

We enjoyed seeing the scenery, especially the fall leaves, which, while not as spectacular as New England, were still impressive to us south westerners.


Our trip back to Virginia Saturday included the low point of the trip when I locked the van's keys inside...oops! Poor Stan waited outside near the van, so that we didn't miss the locksmith in weather colder than we usually see all year. Every cloud has a silver lining, though. He bought himself a jar of pickled pig's feet at the gas station we were stuck at. He's been trying to get the kids to try them for months and is planning on having these for his birthday dinner.

We went to church Sunday morning and headed to the airport. I ended up volunteering my seat and taking a different flight than Stan and the six older kids, but we still all made it home within an hour of each other. Stan and I looked at each other and said, "Whew, I can't believe we made it!"

Odds, Ends and Funny Bubbles

Thursday night, the company Stan works for had a party. Clients and spouses were invited. I washed my hair, had the girls make dinner and took off. There was a live band, good food, displays in some of the offices, and interesting people. The caterer had a set up where you chose your pasta and your sauce and the chef sautéed fresh herbs, added the sauce and pasta and heated it all together for you, which was fun. Stan put some pressed plants and a collection of bees and flies out for visitors to peruse as well as a slide show of pictures of species they survey for. One of his fellow biologists spent her time, between eating and visiting, dissecting owl pellets and explaining her findings. The Archeology Dept. had some of the fossils that they had rescued from bulldozers. My favorite was half of a mammoth tooth that whole would have weighed more than the baby I will have in February (I hope!!!). I had a great time and, as you can see, socially I was a hit, causing other party goers to roll their eyes and try to escape.


Saturday, Summer, Rachel and I went with the Young Women on the Metrolink into LA to Olvera Street. There is a Mexican marketplace and quite a few historical buildings. We went on a tour with a docent and had an overview of the history of the city's beginnings. We had a lot of fun and Rachel bought a sombrero. Not the one she is wearing - hers is doll sized, but isn't she cute in this one?

Lastly, here's a link to Funny Bubbles - http://pageup.info/blog/funnybubbles.html. Every time we watch it, we laugh - hope you do, too!